Chargers' Cason: Turning the corner?

Chargers defensive back Antoine Cason stretches before a workout recently at the University of Arizona, where he played college ball. Cason is being trained by Wildcats assistant track coach Francesca Green.
— JAMES S. WOOD / For the Union-Tribune

Chargers defensive back Antoine Cason stretches before a workout recently at the University of Arizona, where he played college ball. Cason is being trained by Wildcats assistant track coach Francesca Green.
/ JAMES S. WOOD / For the Union-Tribune

He does understand that the Chargers won 11 straight games after that Denver loss and that to a certain extent his demotion was a product of timing.

Still, Cason steamed the rest of the season. The 2008 Thorpe Award winner as college football’s top defensive back and a first-round pick, Cason does not lack confidence nor acknowledge shortcoming easily.

The coaches were taken aback by his reaction. The Chargers spent a first-round draft pick on Cason in large part due to his maturity, and they believed he did not show it when he lost his job.

“How would you have handled it,” is all Cason would say, his accompanying glare making it clear no apology would be forthcoming.

Despite whatever public proclamations are made, be assured that the relationship between Cason and his coaches remains frayed. There may yet, with success going forward, be total reconciliation, but there will likely remain stretch marks.

However, no one appears worried.

“It’s in the past,” head coach Norv Turner said. “… I’ve never had concerns about his ability to play corner on the outside.”

Cason has said to coaches: “I won’t ever let you do that again.” He has told them there are no hard feelings, and has tried believing it himself.

Maybe it’s true.

But there is no question Cason has his latest slight tucked away in that pocket of the mind where he stores so many affronts, both real and perceived, great and small.

“If I say something that doesn’t support him, he lets me know about it,” said Francesca Green, the University of Arizona sprint coach whom Cason worked with this offseason to increase speed and improve his fluidity of motion, as she laughed and nodded.

Cason has known Green for a decade, ever since she was involved in recruiting his older brother, Dione, to run track at Washington State. It is the first and most lighthearted story Cason tells about being doubted.

Green and another assistant from Washington State were in the Cason home recruiting Dione when Antoine was about 14. Antoine recalls the coaches turning their attention to him and asking, in essence, what he wanted to do when he grew up. He told them he ran track but that he was going to be a football player.

“I’m 5-6,” Cason recalled. “I weigh 120 pounds soaking wet.”

In his telling, the two coaches smiled, even laughed as they shared a knowing look.

“It was like they were, ‘No way is this little kid going to play football,’ ” Cason said.